Yes, run. Go.
The wood grunted like a beast hunting in the woods.
No!
Cut spun around. His eyes bugged as he dropped his hold. I couldn’t move, hanging on the rack as he balled his hands and strode to the table where things of nightmares rested. “Where do you think you’re going, Jazzy?”
She plastered herself against the door, shaking her head.
“Run, Jaz.Run!” I struggled. “Don’t look back. Just go!”
She didn’t.
She froze as Cut picked up a black club and advanced on her.
“No!” I squirmed harder, drawing more blood, more fear.
“I’m going to teach you to control it, Jet, if it’s the last fucking thing I do.” Cut swatted the club into his hand, making goosebumps scatter over my body.
Jasmine trembled as Cut towered over her. “You love your sister. Let’s see if you can protect her by focusing for once.” His hand rose, shadowing her face with his arm.
“Run, Jaz!” I screamed, tearing through her terror and kick starting her flight. Her fear kept her mute, but a sudden resolution filled her gaze.
She ran.
Pushing off from the door, she charged around my father and darted across the barn.
Cut spun, holding the club, watching his daughter bolt from him. Only, he didn’t let her go. He gave chase.
“No!” I couldn’t do a thing as he stormed after his child and wrenched his arm back to strike.
“Jasmine!”
And then it was all over.
The club struck her back.
The force sent her tumbling head over heels.
Her little shoes clattered against the floor as her skirts flew over her face. She came to a stop facing me, her little eyes glassing with tears, locked on mine above her.
For a second, she just lay there, blinking in shock, cataloguing her hurt. Then, the thickest, hardest, all-consuming wave I’d ever felt washed over me. Her pain drenched me. Her agony infected me. Everything she felt—her childish whims, her hopeful wishes—they all rammed down my throat and made me sick.
I vomited as Jasmine burst into tears.
Her screams echoed around us, slipping out the door, licking around the trees and rising to the crescent moon above.
I cried with her. Because I knew what’d happened as surely as she did.
Winter had watched this atrocity. Frost hadn’t prevented it. Ice had let it happen. And a blizzard began deep in my soul.
I couldn’t do it anymore.
I couldn’t handle my sister’s agony, my father’s despair, my own brokenness.
I can’t do this.
And neither could Jasmine.
